Ubuntu ureadahead Error on Bootup

On Ubuntu 10.10, during bootup, the following error shows up during bootup (in the console):

"ureadahead main process (367) terminated with status 5"

ureadahead is something that helps optimize the files that has to be read on bootup, in order to improve boot-time. All this error means is that the opportunity to optimize boot-time was lost.

The cause of the problem was that ureadahead depends on /var/lib/ureadahead (read-ahead data are cached there), and ureadahead was run before /var was mounted. This happens when /var is on a separate partition. This race condition is a result of the default configuration of ureadahead (in /etc/init/ureadahead.conf), which tries to run this concurrently with the mounting process (probably to minimize boot time on netbooks).

To eliminate this race condition, change this line /etc/init/ureadahead.conf:
"start on starting mountall"
to
"start on mounted MOUNTPOINT=/var"

This can also be accomplished with the command:
sudo sed -i 's+^start on starting mountall+start on mounted MOUNTPOINT=/var+' /etc/init/ureadahead.conf

References:

1. www.uluga.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php